The purpose of the present study was twofold. First, to compare the effect of establishing a motivational context of values on
pain tolerance, believability, and reported
pain, with three experimental conditions:
pain acceptance (ACT condition),
pain control (CONT condition), or no values (untrained condition). Second, the study aimed to isolate the impact of adding the corresponding coping strategies to both the ACT and the CONT conditions. Thirty adults were randomly assigned to one of the three experimental conditions. The participants went through the
pain task in two occasions (Test I and Test II). In Test I, the effects of the ACT-values protocol (which established
pain as part of valued action), the CONT-values protocol (which established high
pain as opposed to valued action), and the no-values protocol, were compared. In Test II, the effect of adding the corresponding coping strategy to each condition (defusion for ACT vs. suppression for CONT) was examined. Test I showed a clear superiority of the ACT-values protocol in increasing tolerance and lowering
pain believability. In Test II, the superiority of the
ACT protocol was replicated, while the CONT protocol proved useful to reduce reported
pain, in accordance with previous studies.